I'm looking for help planning a bike ride in France with my son next summer.

He got his first bike this summer and the 2.3 km trip ride to/from school has worked great since he started 1st grade 3 weeks ago. On weekends we go for longer rides. I notice that cycling maps for our region include routes where kids under 8 aren't permitted to ride, and that I'd find too dangerous even if he could go there legally. He is an intrepid little rider!
This fall break, we're going to bike along the north shore of Lake Constance (der Bodensee) from Bregenz to Reichenau. We'll ride a ferry and a cable car, see Roman churches, castles, thermal baths, the Zeppelin museum, and an island full of flowers. We will average 17 km (just over 10 miles) per day on our bikes. (Bikers out there, no sneering--he will have just turned 7!)

France is more of an adventure for us--he's learning French in school this year, but mine is very minimal. Versailles is one obvious stopping point, but I figure we'll need 4 or 5 days to cover the whole stretch, so we need more places to stay and things to do. We will start with a few days in Paris where we'll see the Eiffel tower and tour the sewers and lots in between, and will take a train to the beach at the end of our trip.
We have plenty of time to dream and plan, and my basic idea may change after our experience this fall, but I want to get things rolling (gently) now, while people's summer trips are still recent memories. Whether or not you've biked in this area, I'd love to hear suggestions of places to go, places to stay and routes to get there.
Merci beaucoup!

i biked with my son that age on similar 4-5 day trips - i have no real recommendations in the Paris area and would eschew the Paris region because of the traffic - and the Versailles area has some of the worst traffic IME. I have biked myself all over the French Hexagon and can attest to saying that France is rarely flat. I'd get an good Michelin or INS map with elevations on it and areas indicating degrees of climbs. I'd bike perhaps along the Marne River Valley east of Paris - from the Melun area east along the river as it goes into Champagne district or in the fairly flat Fontainebleu Forest area around the famous chateau - two flat and interesting areas. But i would never bike with a child that young in Paris itself. In Paris you can hop the RER to places like St Germaine and rent bikes at the RER stations, get maps, etc to explore this huge park - Paris RER (rapid metro) has special maps, etc.

Palenqu, thanks for the very valuable advice.
In Paris, I'm thinking we'll use the bikes the way we do in our city in Germany, for short distances, but will also use the subways and public transport. Here it is usually no trouble at all to take a bike along in a bus or subway (though some in Berlin have limits of 2 per car) to use at the other end. Does that work in Paris?

I'm not sure the Metro allows bikes...the Underground in London doesnt for the most part (there is very limited access for bikes, and most not in central London).

I've looked on the English version of www.ratp.fr (the Paris transit website) and cant find any info...perhps someone in Paris can help.

I think its more likely that the RER will allow bikes.

I would not compare Paris to any German city in being bike friendly - in spite of the huge success and publicity garnered by Velib' rental bikes parked all over (DB had and has i believe such a scheme for years now in Germany) and a bike path in Paris is largely a marked stripe on a busy roadway IME (i have biked extensively all over Paris) - but head to the parks - the Bois de Boulogne or Bois d Vincennes for lots of nice and safe biking. But do not expect either the extensive bike paths i've seen all over Germany and do not either IME expect as much respect as bikers get in Germany.

Place au Vélo 94 - MDB - Prenez le RER avec votre Vélo
- [ Translate this page ]
Avec votre vélo vous pouvez utiliser les lignes et et l'ensemble des correspondances entre toutes les lignes du RER, y compris dans Paris. (...)
mdb94.org/spip.php?article169 -

seems like RER trains - which resemble S-Bahns in Germany and not the smaller more congested Paris metro trains will take velos, or bikes.

You aren't allowed to take bikes on the metro, trams or buses in Paris with a few exceptions -- you can take them on the line 1 metro on Sundays until 4:30 pm. YOu can take them on the RER with exception of certain hours which are rush hour (you can take them all day on Sat/Sun). During the week, you cannot between 6:30 am and 9 am and from 4:30 pm to 7 pm. The cars where they are allowed are marked with a velo (bicycle) sign -- usually first and last, but you have to check.

great info from Christina - and if taking SNCF commuter or regional trains - like to Vernon to ride the flat three miles or so to Giverny and Monet's House and Gardens for example, mainly along the Seine on a bike path running over a disused rail line - then most regional trains also have a V or Velo notation meaning there is a special place for velos, or bikes - similar to what Christina reports on RER trains (and perhaps rush hour blackouts - but who in their right mind would want to take a bike on any train in the Paris region at rush hours?

OK, so we will park the bikes during the few days at the beginning of the trip while we check out Paris, just as we will park them for a few days at the other end while we're at the beach. (A stripe painted on the road is just the kind of "bike route" shown on maps for our region that I mentioned in my original post--much too dangerous with my guy; he flips his bike frequently, would not jump up nearly as quickly if a car was involved!)

Christina, thank you ! for that specific information on bikes on public transit.

I still, however, have the same questions about the middle part--are there good hotels, things to see, and routes to take from Versailles to Giverny? We'll get 'royal' exposure at Versailles, serious art at Giverny & environs; I didn't mention that we're looking for variety, but it would be very nice. (The maps show farmland of some sort; I wouldn't mind reenacting van Gogh's peasants/haystack painting!)

I completely "get" that we won't want to do any serious riding in Paris itself, but it would be fun to have at least a symbolic approach to Versailles on the first day of the "bike" portion of the trip. I notice on the map that there is a huge park/forest to the South and East of Versailles. Assuming we can find a way to get the bikes to the other end of that park on the RER or otherwise (we won't be getting up early enough for rush hour to be a problem!), is that a good place to ride through, so that we're on park paths for all but the last blocks before the palace grounds? I've seen Kkururu (?)'s comment on another thread that her kids loved renting bikes and riding around the Versailles grounds themselves, so I take it we'll be fine riding once we're there.

p.s.--completely unrelated to the topic--
biker boy has lost both his top front teeth since I first posted this thread!

There are biking routes in BOis de Boulogne which are very serious. They have riding clubs there, I think.

Van Gogh painted those haystacks in Provence, but did spend a lot of time in Auvers-sur-Oise (and is buried there) which is north of Paris. It's not on the way from Versailles to Giverny, as far as I know (I think Giverny is more NW).

Biking between Versailles and Giverny sounds difficult to me, but I found a description by someone about biking around there and how you would do that, actually
http://www.rodgerrealm.com/france/lo...versailles.pdf

Christine, you are one awesome fount of local information!

If that sounds over the top, it is not due to sarcasm, but to the facts that it is G&T time where we live (I'm on my 1st and probably only one for the night, but I'm a lightweight these days) and to actual gratitude.

Hey saacnmama -
Sounds like quite an adventure!
My kids (8 and 11) absolutely loved biking in Paris on the 2 Fat Tire Bike tours, and DH and I left the experience knowing that if (when!) he and I came back to Paris we would definitely spend some time using the Velib system. However...
I wouldn't have wanted to do a lot of independant biking with the kids in Paris. There was a 'safety in numbers' with the bike tour that meant our pack - and therefore my kids - were much more visible to drivers then a small family group would have been. Biking in an unknown city would require a combination of 'where are we' and 'where are the kids' awareness that I wouldn't have been comfortable juggling. Fundamentally different then with the tour. There were bike lanes, but they were actually bike/bus/cab lanes so didn't provide the same buffer as a bike lane would have. My kids LOVED the metro - so if we had been primarily on bike we would have missed that as well.

And we didn't go to Versailles on our trip, but if (when!) I go back with the kids, we will go to Versailles, and would definitely use a bike angle (either renting them there or taking a bike tour).

Hope that helped!

V

OK, here's what's taking shape, though I'm not sure if this is a summer or fall vacation itinerary:

Day 1 (probably a Monday) arrive on night train, take bikes et al to hotel in Latin Quarter
Shop at outdoor mkt, eat lunch outdoors
Boat tour (first sighting of Eiffel tower)
Climb/ride up Eiffel tower

Day 2 Fat tire bike tour
picnic lunch in Jardin du Luxembourg
Supper in Montmartre

Day 3 Palais de la Dcouverte science museum "Cite des sciences et de l'Industrie" ( http://www.cite-sciences.fr/english/indexFLASH.htm )
Notre Dame
Dinner in Arab/N African section of town

Day 4 Cite des Enfants or Louvre and Musee D'Orsay (more research needed)
Sewer tour
pack

Bike day 1—Versailles (follow route in Christine's link, or ride through forest/park and bike around grounds)

Bike day 2 20 km ? ? ? ?? ? ? ?? ? ? ?? ? ? ?

Bike day 3 20 km ? ? ? ?? ? ? ?? ? ? ?? ? ? ?

Bike day 4 20 km ending at Monet's house and garden in Giverny

Beach days 1-4 relax, play in waves, and build sand castles

Overnight train back to Jena (arrive Sat)

There's more to work in from "Elmo in Paris" but that's the basic outline thus far. Your comments, please!

a few more things from the "Elmo in Paris" trip report, to be worked in via careful map work...

"Bal Musette, My mother and I had just finished reading Susan Vreeland's entertaining “Luncheon of the Boating Party” and this piqued our interest in a guignette."
sounds wonderful--wonder if we could find similar (check out the post for the full story) somewhere along our intended route (or on a slight detour)

Mosque near Jardin des Plantes

Puppet show in Lux Gardens...

Quite a few posters mention carousels in Paris. Perhaps we'll go to "Parc Monceau. We walked up along the Blvd Malsherbes – not too exciting – and got some pastries before we entered the park. We must have hit the park right at the end of the school day because it was teaming with kids. We enjoyed the carousel (Butte Chaumont was definitely the best carousel), sandbox and playground"

chacouterie, cheese shops the last evening in Paris, as part of the packing (provisions to take on the bike trip)

there are several carousels around Paris, they seem to be in most big parks. I do remember the one in Parc Monceau, and there is one on the plaza in front of Gare Montparnasse, in Parc Montsouris, in Luxembourg and Tuileries Gardens, in place d'Italie, and place de la Republique. I think there is one in front of the Hotel de Ville sometimes, also, not sure, and the plaza at the Trocadero and near the St Paul metro. There is a real popular one up near Sacre Coeur, also. Now for real ponies, they have pony rides in the park in front of the Marmottan (Ranelagh). I think they are ponies, maybe donkeys, I forget.

Thanks again, Christina!
It sounds like I can plan out the rest of the time in Paris, and then work in a carousel close to somewhere we're already going. It helps to know where they are, because if we planned to bump into one by luck, I can guarantee we wouldn't see a one.
We might look into donkeys/ponies too. I've never been into that sort've thing, but my son loved 'jousting' on a donkey at a medieval festival last weekend, so maybe we should check it out.

He may be getting a little old for pony rides, anyway, I'm not up on when kids get too big for that. I wouldn't go out of my way to go there, but if you are going to the Marmottan museum, you'd go right by them, anyway, and there is a nice big park where they are and a lot of kids are often playing there.

I completely "get" that we won't want to do any serious riding in Paris itself, but it would be fun to have at least a symbolic approach to Versailles on the first day of the "bike" portion of the trip. I notice on the map that there is a huge park/forest to the South and East of Versailles.>

Yes take the RER C to a point near the forest and do an easy putz to the chateau - i once biked to Versailles from Paris and from the Seine it's a long uphill trek so look at a station near the forest/park and go from there. And yes biking around the grounds is great. And if for a diversion kiddo wants to do a rowboat ride with you on the huge rectangular piece of water in the Versailles gardens even better perhaps.

Actually the only place the Park of Versailles touches the chateau's park is i believe if you come from St. Cyr - to the southwest of the castle and then bike thru Versailles castle's huge park to the castle.